Years Later
by AzureOtter
Summary: Years after 'The Serpent's Shadow' Carter and Zia are two happily married archaeologists, with triplets Meret, Ruby, and Julius. This story tells of one of their craziest digs yet, involving the incident when Sadie and Walt make a sort of unexpected appearance, saying they want their soon-to-be born child born in Egypt... Though it's probably a k , rated T just to be safe
1. Chapter 1

1. Julius Howard Kane

**Note: I don't own the "Kane Chronicles". **

"Mwahaha!" I cried gleefully. "You can't catch me!"

"Come back here, you little troll!" my triplet, Meret, shouted angrily. "Give me back my phone!"

"I think I'll just read the texts," I announced. "Hmm...'I think Jake is SO hot! And-' "

_Whack! _I landed flat on my stomach in a heap of sand and dust.

"Ah-ha!" Meret said triumphantly, snatching her phone from my hand.

I rolled onto my back, panting. Sweat rolled down my face and my hair stuck to my forehead with perspiration. My t-shirt and shorts were torn and covered in sand. I wasn't looking my best, I admit.

"Hmm..." Meret said mischievously, putting her foot on my stomach to keep me from rising. "I wonder if I should take a picture. Post it on facebook, perhaps? Or send it to my friend Ashley, that girl you have a crush on? Either way, it won't be the most attractive picture of you." She smiled, her amber eyes glinting with mischief.

"Meret, let him go," Ruby said. Shy, bookworm Ruby sat on the sand outside one of the tents we were staying in while we were at Mom and Dad's excavation site. Ruby was reading _Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince _for the hundredth time, with a dust-covered water bottle and a bag of pretzels beside her. Lucy, a muscular Golden-Retriever that accompanied us on many of our digs, lay at her favorite human's feet, panting in the sun.

"I'll let him go when I want to," Meret promised.

Ruby sighed, pushed her glasses up farther on her nose, tucked a strand of curly dark-brown hair behind her ear, and returned to her book.

"No, Ruby!" I shouted, pretending to be scared for my life. "I-I can't breathe! She's pressing harder, and-"

"Meret, stop," said a firm voice. I looked up and saw a brown, handsome, middle-aged face lined with dark-brown curls.

"Oh. Hey, Dad." Meret removed her foot.

Dad sighed and rubbed his sweaty face with his equally sweaty hand. "Children, sometimes I don't know why I even bother. You're disrupting the excavations. We could hear Meret's screams from fifteen minutes away!"

Meret smirked. "Actually, that was Julius."

Dad sighed. I accepted his hand and got to my feet.

Mom came at that moment, along with the rest of the crew. They started getting refreshments from the cooler and setting them on the table.

Mom was also sweaty. She was dressed in khaki shorts and a white t-shirt. Her beautiful amber eyes and copper skin shone in the sunlight, and her long black hair was tied back in a messy ponytail under a straw hat. I'd have to say, my mom is pretty cool.

"How are you, sweetie?" Mom asked, tucking a strand of brown hair behind my ear.

"Meret stepped on me," I explained. "How are you?"

"Good."

Dad grunted. "More than good. We think we've discovered the entrance to a tomb."

Ruby looked up from her book, suddenly interested. "Really? How long before you reach the burial chamber?"

Dad shrugged. "If we ever do reach a burial chamber. Could be days, could be weeks. It could even be a month or more. Who knows? But, remember, we don't know for sure if there will even be anything worth finding. Most likely tomb robbers were here before us."

"Wait, weeks? Months?" Meret demanded. "But, Dad! That'll take forever, 'cause you'll still have work to finish up here after the tomb!"

"Meret, you know these things take a long time if they are to be done properly. Besides, I want you to eventually come to being interested in the work. To like the work."

"I do like it, Dad! I am very interested! But I'm a thirteen-year-old girl, I need a life outside of Egypt and dusty archaeological sites!"

"Then next time you can stay with Aunt Sadie and Uncle Walt."

"Urgh!" was Meret's answer. I shot her a sympathetic look. I know how bad it feels when adults act snotty to you and chide you when you act snotty to them. They basically encourage the stereotypical bratty teenage behavior that they complain so much about!

"If you're bored, you could always read a book," Ruby suggested innocently.

Meret shot her a death glare. "Already tried that, thank you very much."

I studied my sisters. Girls were so strange. I was a triplet, and had lived with two sisters, my exact same age, for the entire thirteen years of life, and I _still _didn't understand the female sex. My sisters (and I) look alike, with our dark brown curls, amber eyes, and coppery skin, but a blind person would never have guessed we were siblings. Ruby's shy, timid, quiet, and nerdy-like Dad when he was her age. She never takes her head out of her book, she knows everything about Egyptian history from King Tut to modern day, and she only uses her phone for emergencies, and talking to her best friend, Rachel. Meret, on the other hand, is a social butterfly. Her phone is in her hand so much, I often wonder whether it's stuck there.

"Lemonade?" Michele, a worker on the excavation team, asked. She was a young, pretty, blonde girl, probably in her early twenties, and I always felt nervous around her.

"Uh...Yeah...Um, sure, that'd be-that'd be great," I stuttered stupidly, causing Meret to giggle into her cup.

"So what have you three been up to?" Mom asked.

"Reading," Ruby said.

"Annoying Julius," Meret said.

"Annoying Meret," I said.

Suddenly, the dramatic ring of a cell phone cut through the air. Dad held up his hand. "Sorry, that's mine. I'll be write back." He disappeared into his tent.

He came back a few minutes later, a grim look on his handsome face.

"Carter, what's wrong?" Mom asked, putting an arm around her husband.

"Did somebody die?" I asked.

Dad shook his head. "Worse; my sister and her family are coming."

"Wait, coming _here_?" Mom said. "Why in Ra's name would they do that?"

"Sadie's pregnant," Dad answered shortly.

"Oh, really? That's wonderful!" Ruby exclaimed.

"That's great news," Mom said, beaming.

"Actually, Sadie's been expecting for months, she just hasn't told us. She wanted it to be a surprise," said Dad. "She's coming here because she wants-Well, mostly Walt wants-to have at least one of their children born in Egypt. I only wish she had told us sooner, the brat." Dad swore under his breath, but I could tell he was secretly pleased.

"This is great! When are they arriving?" Meret asked.

"Tomorrow afternoon," Dad confirmed.

Great, I thought. Just great.

**Did ya like it? The chapters will alternate between Julius, Meret, and Ruby's point of view, and I might have a chapter or two narrated by Carter or Zia. And/or Walt or Sadie. Any ideas? Suggestions for the story? Please review (Please? Yesterday was my birthday), but no flames please!**


	2. 2 Meret

2. Meret

**Hey y'all! I'm back with a new chapter of ****_Years Later_****! Quick, you say? Being homeschooled, I have a bit more time on my hands, considering my mom just assigns me my work and I basically work at my own pace, finishing it when I finish it. So, I have a few things to say: First of all, I just looked up the meaning of the name Meret, and apparently Meret was the token wife of Hapi, the god of the Nile, who, as we all know, made an appearance in ****_The Serpent's Shadow. _****Wow...I just picked the name because I thought it was pretty, but now that I know what it means...Sorry, Meret! **

**Meret: 'Sorry' won't do it.**

**Me: Hehe. Anyway, I'll answer some reviews here:**

**To Kiara Daughter of Hermes: Thanks so much! **

**To guest: Aw, thank you! Okay, thanks for the suggestion! It _was_ my birthday the other day, thanks! I just turned thirteen, and I got this fanfiction account, which I have been waiting FOREVER for!**

**To KrclceGirl: Thank you so much! It really means a lot. And thanks for asking about Julius and Carter. Well, I think Julius doesn't really want to see his cousins right at this moment, and if you keep reading you'll find out why. Not that they're all annoying (Some of them are) but...I just can relate to it. I love my cousins to death, but for some reason I think that, if I were in the middle of the desert, on an archaeology dig with my parents, hot and sweaty and bored out of my mind (I wouldn't be bored, but if I was)...I would NOT want my extensive amount of cousins coming right at that moment. Carter is pretending to be upset, as he should be since Sadie and Walt decided to come on such short notice (and, besides, Sadie's pregnant, which will mean a birth at the dig site), but I did write that secretly Carter was pleased. No, it's not a flame at all! I like my reviewers to ask questions and leave polite suggestions!**

**To Romanleader01: Thank you! I hope you still like it and keep reviewing!**

**I just realized I had a blaring typo in my last chapter, where I wrote "write" instead of "right". Sorry 'bout that! I also want to remind everyone that I have been doing some research on the life of an archaeologist, but I am aware that probably not everything I write about is accurate. So, I'm very sorry if you notice something wrong. I'm mostly using the internet and Elizabeth Peter's 'Amelia Peabody' mystery series for reference, which is a bit out of date, considering it takes place on archaeological digs in the Victorian Era. (Still, it's an absolutely fantastic series that I highly recommend to ages fourteen and up. I read it when I was twelve. I suppose I was a bit too young for it (It is an adult series, after all), but I read Les Miserables and Oliver Twist when I was twelve, so...) And, without further ado, on with the story!**

**Note: I don't own the "Kane Chronicles".**

('No, Julius, it's MY turn for the mic! You already had your's! What-Ow!' CRASH!...)

Sorry about that. Jules is just being a brat, as usual. Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. Auntie Sadie is coming.

So the next day was a big rush. Despite Dad's protests, Mom insisted on taking the day off from archaeology. She made a big fuss about her husband's family coming, which wasn't like her. Maybe the heat was affecting her brain. Or possibly she had a soft spot for her pregnant sister-in-law. I always guessed she liked little kids and babies, though she would never admit it.

Mom made comb us our hair and put on clean clothes, which isn't easy in dusty, sandy Egypt, where you no sooner step out of your tent than the wind messes up your hair, or the heat of the sun causes it to stick to your face. The dust seeps into your tent, so if you lay clean clothes out at night, they'll be sand-covered by the time you wake up. The bus came to pick us up and take us to shower at a gas station almost an hour away. We would normally just pour water over our heads, but Mum decided we should have a _real _shower today. I had just finished showering and dressing, and was sitting at a table in the McDonalds connected to the gas station, drinking a cup of horrible coffee, when my brother and sister emerged from the showers and sat opposite me at the table.

Ruby looked nice, in black drawstring pants, brown hiking boots, a brown jacket, and a black shirt, that I had no doubt would be blanketed in sand and dust in a short amount of time. Her curly brown hair had been forced into a long braid that ran down her back. She looked like Katniss from _The Hunger Games._

Julius, to his dismay, had been forced to wear jeans and a _clean _black shirt, instead of his usual gym shorts and sleeveless tee. I wore jeans and a blue Disney World shirt.

Dad came to join us. He looked nervous.

"Something wrong, Dad?" I asked.

"What? Oh, nothing. It's just, I'm so nervous about my sister's family coming. And us having to have a birth at the site."

"There's nothing to be nervous about, Dad," I said reassuringly.

He fidgeted with his sleeve. "I know. I think I'm getting it from your mother. Why is she fussing so much? She never fusses. A long time ago, before you three were born, when I had a huge red rash and hives as big as tomatoes down my back, she told me to take some aspirin and get over it. Of course, that was when we were only sixteen, but..."

"And why was she looking at your back?" Julius asked with a grin.

Dad rolled his eyes. "Oh, knock it off, Jules."

Mom arrived at that moment. She looked beautiful, as always. "Hello, kids," she said, with her faint Arabic accent, "Carter. Shall we head back?"

"When are they coming?" Ruby wondered.

"Four thirty," said Dad. "We had better get back. The workers will be expecting us."

At three, Dad went to pick up Sadie, Walt, and their children from the airport. They soon arrived in the bus. As they came towards us, I was able to hear Dad, who was trying to convince his sister to stay in Cairo. "Sadie, an archaeological site is not a good place for a birth. It's dangerous. The heat, the sand the dust, the absence of a doctor-"

"It's fine, Carter," Sadie insisted, laughing.

"Nancy!" I shrieked, running to hug my cousin and friend.

"Meret!" she screamed back. We met halfway and caught each other in an embrace. Meanwhile, Julius and Ruby were doing the same with five-year-old twins John and Ron, and eleven-year-old Jaz, named after one of my aunt's best friends. Yep, Sadie and Walt have a _lot _of kids. Four, soon to be five.

Once we were all settled in, I asked Sadie, "So is it a boy or a girl?"

"Don't know," Sadie said shortly, "but my intuition tells me it's a girl."

Walt snorted. "Your intuition?"

"Yep. Woman's intuition. Pass the lemonade."

"Well, I think it's definitely a boy," said Walt.

"Right, tell yourself that," Sadie retorted, blowing a strand of dark-blonde hair from her face.

"What will you name it?" Ruby asked.

"Don't know that, either. But how would you kids like to name it?"

"Really?" Ruby and I said in unison.

"Really. Now, do you have a bathroom here?"

I smirked. Our only bathroom was a hole in the ground behind one of the tents.

"Of course," Julius said, in a fake accent. "Right this way, _Mademoiselle."_

**I know, that chapter wasn't that great...But I'm tired. And I'm running out of ideas! But I am determined to stay with this story. Anyone have any suggestions? Please review!**

**-AzureOtter**


	3. Chapter 3

3. Ruby

**Hi! It's AzureOtter back with another chapter of ****_Years Later_****! First of all, I am SO SORRY I have not updated in a while! I've been busy with schoolwork, family stuff, and my various 'Les Miserables' fanfics. If you have not seen the Les Mis musical, watched the movie, or read the book, I encourage you to do so. It is an unbelievably awesome, fantastic, great, tear-jerking, unbelievably epic story. Seriously, buy tickets right away to see the epic live musical if it comes anywhere near you, go to Blockbuster or something RIGHT NOW and buy the recent 2012 movie, or go to your local library and get the book. (That is, if you're comfortable with reading a 1500 page novel.) Or all three. Or at least look it up on Wikipedia. Anyway, now that I have that out of my system...Thanks to all my lovely reviewers, I hope you enjoy this new chapter, and I don't own "The Kane Chronicles"! (And, considering I'm going to reference Jane Austen's novel 'Pride and Prejudice' later in this chapter, I guess I better say I don't own 'Pride and Prejudice'. Sigh. Why can't I marry Mr. Darcy? :) )**

Hello. This is Ruby. Julius seems to think I won't be able to narrate this since I'm so quiet, but I am determined to prove him wrong. Anyway, once our new guests had gotten settled in, us kids tried to decide what to do.

"You wanna put on a play, like we used to do all the time?" Eleven-year-old Jaz asked.

Meret and Nancy exchanged a look. "I'm fourteen," Nancy said hotly, "and Meret, Ruby, and Julius are thirteen. We're too old to put on plays. Put on your own play with John and Ron, if you like."

"Hey, why don't we so something like that for a while?" Meret said. I stared at her. Meret would be the last person to _ever_ say something like that. "Hey, it'll be fun," she continued. "We'll put on a show for our parents tonight. We could have a singing or acting contest or something. Do some skits."

"Hey, I like the idea," Julius said. "I could do my-"

"No Iron Man impressions, Julius," Meret said immediately.

"You're not my mother."

"I know, but last time you did that impression, you used magic and Mom's eyebrows were nearly singed off!"

So it was settled. And for the rest of the day, we had a fantastic time creating skits and musical numbers for our big show. It was just like old times.

* * *

"This better be good," Aunt Sadie said teasingly. Our parents were seated cross-legged on the ground, except for Sadie, who had a chair.

"Oh, it will be," Meret said. "Depends on how you define 'good'."

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Julius demanded. "Meret, if you're referring to my acting skills-"

"No. I'm referring to your singing skills. Not to mention your social skills."

"Meret," Dad said warningly.

"Well, let's get this show on the road," Sadie said. "Gods, I'm hungry."

"You just ate," my uncle said in amazement. He held five-year-old John on his lap while Ron sat on the ground beside him. I smiled. Ron and John were good kids, so quiet and shy.

"Walter-"

"Don't call me Walter."

"Walter, I have another person to feed. _An entire other person_. Unlike you, I have an excuse for being fat."

"What? I never said you were fat-"

"I didn't say you did."

Walt rolled his eyes in exasperation at the stubbornness of his wife, but his lips were faintly curved upward in a smile.

Meret walked up to the 'stage'-a wooden board with wooden sticks stuck into either side to attach to the 'curtain'-a sand-covered red towel.

"Ladies and gentleman," Meret began, "I present to you-The Kanes and the Stones!" She held up a side that humorously read 'The _Canes _and the Stones'. "Anyway, our first act of the show is Ruby's imitation of a scene from Jane Austen's novel, _Pride and Prejudice_!"

I approached nervously. I'm a nervous, shy type of girl, but I loved doing my impressions of scenes in classic novels, and I was determined to show Julius I could do this. I started out with the famous proposal scene:

" 'In vain I have struggled. It will not do. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you.' "

I do a very good British accent, if I may say so, and the audience laughed heartily.

I continued, speaking as Elizabeth this time: " 'In such cases as this, it is, I believe, the established mood to express a sense of obligation for the sentiments avowed, however unequally they may be returned. It is natural that obligation should be felt, and if I _could _feel gratitude, I would now, thank you. But I cannot-I have never desired your good opinion, and you have certainly bestowed it most unwillingly...' "

And on I went. When I was finished, all my family cheered. "Did you have that whole passage already memorized, Ruby?" Walt teased.

"Maybe," I said, smiling and blushing a bit.

"Alright," said Meret. "Next, I am to perform a song."

And the rest of the night passed in fun and good times.

* * *

That night, Meret, Nancy, Jaz and I were dressed in our pajamas in our tent we now shared.

"You wanna play Truth or Dare?" Nancy, who was busy taking off her makeup, asked.

"Sure," said Meret. "Nancy, you first."

"Truth."

"Kay. Why did you decide to wear makeup to your luxurious vacation to the middle of the hot, sandy desert with no showers and no one but your weird family and a dog for company?"

Nancy laughed and hit Meret with her pillow.

"Hey!" Meret cried.

"Doesn't count," Nancy said, hitting her with the pillow again.

"Fine. Um...Do you have a boyfriend, Nance?"

Nancy giggled. "Yes, actually, I do."

"Nance! Why didn't you tell me? Show me a picture!"

I wasn't that surprised. With her blonde hair, rosy cheeks, Grecian features, and beautiful, mature figure, Nancy was bound to attract members of the male sex wherever she went.

"Well, here he is." She showed us a picture on her phone of a sandy-haired teenage boy with a nice, muscular body and some adorable freckles across his nose.

"He's so cute!" Meret squealed. "And so sexy-looking. Do your mom and dad know?"

"Of course they do!"

"You're so lucky. Dad would freak out if a boy even told me he liked my shirt."

"Ah, well, that's what dads are for. Besides, I'm a year older than you."

"Alright," I said, as I was not very interested in the conversation. "Nance, your turn."

"Um...Ruby, truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"What character in any of your beloved books would you most want to marry?"

"Mr. Darcy," I said immediately.

"Figures. Your turn."

"Jaz," I said, "truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"I dare you to creep up on Julius in his tent."

Jaz grinned and, putting her jacket on over her Hello Kitty pajama top, walked out the flap of the tent. The rest of us followed.

Jaz tip-toed to her cousin's tent. Luckily, he was alone, as Ron and John had got scared and were sleeping with their parents. Soon, Jaz was right outside the tent. Mouthing the words "One, two, three!" she opened the flap of the tent and jumped in yelling loudly, "Boo!"

Julius screamed like a little girl. Soon we were all laughing and hitting each other with pillows. That is, until Dad came to tell us to go to sleep.

I was actually very glad my cousins had come. They were so much fun.

**I'm sorry if that chapter wasn't very good. I know I said that on the last chapter, too, but I have the feeling this one wasn't my best. But, the next chapter is probably going to be narrated by either Sadie or Carter. And I'll add in some Zarter and Sadie/Walt romance soon, too. Do review! I promise, the next chapter will be better! In case you were wondering, I made the children put on that talent show thing 'cause that's what I do with my cousins when they visit us from California. We put on plays and such. Last year we put on a 'Harry Potter' spoof called 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Pillows'. It was hilarious. ;)**

**Thank you so much for reading.**

**-AzureOtter**


	4. A Childish Fight

**Guys, you have no idea how sorry I am I have not updated. My theatre camp has been keeping me very busy. But that's over, the play was on Friday, and I'll try and update more often! This chapter is different than most of the chapters, considering it's in Zia's pov.**

**Thank you so much to ALL of my reviewers. You all deserve cookies! **

**To randomotter fan: Thanks so much! You get a big cookie for that! That's a great idea, about Freak! I'll have to use that! Thanks for the idea! And thanks for the cookie. Here's your's. *Finds YOU and hands you a double chocolate chip cookie with peanut butter*. Hey, we both love otters! Randomotterfan and AzureOtter! **

**All rights belong to Rick Riordan. **

ZIA

I woke up with a start. It was dark outside-it couldn't be any earlier thank two in the morning. In a couple hours, I would have to get up to start work. I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. Sighing, I reached for my sweater, threw it on over my pajamas, grabbed a flashlight and a book-_Great Expectations _by Charles Dickens-and, careful not to wake Carter, headed out the flap of the tent.

I decided to sit with my book on a rock a little ways from the tents, not wanting to disturb anyone. It was dark, very dark. I held my flashlight up. On approaching the rock, i observed someone sitting on it. Naturally, I screamed-or, rather, cried out. Softly, of course.

"Shh!" said the person. "Zia, relax. It's me, Sadie."

"Oh." I sighed. "Sorry."

Sadie scooted aside to make room for me. "So what are you doing out at this time of night? I thought you and Carter would be-"

"Shut up, Sadie," I said. "You have such a dirty mind."

"Well?" she said.

I sighed. "I just woke up suddenly, and couldn't get back to sleep. What about you?"

She shrugged. "I just...needed some time to myself, I guess."

"You shouldn't have walked all the way."

"Zia, it's fine. This is my fourth pregnancy; I know what''s good for me."

I smiled. "You're so stubborn."

"I am not!"

"See? You would tightrope walk over the Grand Canyon on a dare."

"Dares and being stubborn are two totally different things."

"Whatever."

A moment later, I said, "We haven't done this in a while, have we?"

"Done what?" Sadie asked.

"Argued like this. I don't remember having a good, childish argument with you since we were teenagers."

Sadie thought about that. "Well, there was that one time, when Nancy was born, and you wanted us to wear those ridiculous matching dresses..."

"They were cute!"

"They were ugly. No way was me _or _my daughter going to wear something that looked like it was straight out of _Gone With the Wind_."

"But you would let your daughter wear something that looks like it was straight out of the bar girl scene from _Miss Saigon_, when she was fourteen."

"Are you insulting my parenting skills?"

"Nada."

"Yes, you are. And I am deeply offended. So, I let Nancy wear makeup. So I let her wear bikinis to the beach with her friends. So I let her wear the occasional halter top. That does not mean I'm a bad mother."

"I never said you were."

"But that's what you were thinking."

"Sadie, I don't want to get into it with you."

Completely ignoring me, she continued, "Well, Miss Rashid Kane, let me tell _you _what's wrong with _your _parenting."

"Oh? And what is that?"

"Oh, I won't tell you. I wouldn't want you to hurt your feelings. You know, make you rethink your actions. Might hurt your brain to think that much."

"Oh, hurt _my _brain? Says the girl who got a D on her final test of the high school semester, because she didn't study. Come on, Sadie," I coaxed. "Tell me what's wrong with my parenting."

"Well, for one, you're way too overprotective."

"Oh, am I? Just because I don't let my son dress like a drug dealer and my daughters dress like street walkers, that makes me too overprotective?"

"Yes. Well, you try to be so protective, and you never let your kids have a bit of fun. They have to come on almost all the digs, unless they want to stay at the crowded Brooklyn House or with Walt and I and all our kids. You won't let them stay home alone, even though they're thirteen and they live five minutes away from Brooklyn House, and they have everyone at Brooklyn House's phone numbers. You won't let your kids go to parties unless you look up every kid whose going to be there's facebook profile."

"That is a total exaggeration!"

She ignored me. "You try to be so protective, but to tell the truth, you aren't. You've missed so much. Your kids have found ways around Mama's protective arms. Believe me, I know. You can't hide a teenage boy from the internet, or TV, no matter how well you try to. Kids disobey! Same for girls. You can't remove a thirteen-year-old girl's hormones, and make sure she never has any of _those_ thoughts towards the opposite sex. Same for boys! You can't wash a teenager's mouth out with soap to prevent them from ever cussing. No matter how well you try to, you can't prevent your teens from being teens. They're just going to disobey more whenever you try and prevent them from disobeying. And you know what? When they're all grown up, your kids are going to hate you more for trying to prevent them from growing up."

I stood up. "That is it, Sadie. You do this all the time. I try and have a normal conversation with you, I tease you, I try and be friendly with you, and you always end up ruining everything and exploding in my face. And you know what? I'm done with it. I don't care that you're pregnant and are more sensitive, I have feelings, too. Just...Never speak to me again. I wish you'd never come. Why did you think it was fine to just come bursting into our dig site and interrupting our work? What gave you the right to do that? What gave you the right to insult my parenting? You're the godmother of those children, yes, but that doesn't give you the right to totally change the way they're brought up! You can help them with problems they're too embarrassed to bring to my attention, and if they're big problems, you tell me. You will look after them if Carter and I die. Those are your roles, as a godmother _and_ aunt. You are also to love and cherish them, almost as they were your own. But none of that, _none _of that, gives you the right to intervene in how _I _raise them, or to tell me they don't love me or appreciate the way I bring them up. You don't know that. Do you have proof they think that? No. So until you find some, just stay away from me! Gods, why couldn't you have just stayed back in Brooklyn, where you belong?"

I am embarrassed and ashamed to admit to what I did next. I hit her. Not hard, but hard enough to knock her off the edge of the rock, since she was so weak in her pregnant form.

I hit her, and then I ran off to my tent, fuming. When I entered, cursing, Carter opened his eyes and asked with concern, "Where have you been? Is something wrong?" I ignored him, got in bed, pulled the sheets over my head, and didn't get to sleep for the rest of the morning.

**I hope you enjoyed that chapter, and aren't too mad at me for including a Zia/Sadie fight. What will happen next? Better wait to find out!**

**Sincerely,**

**AzureOtter**

**P.S. Don't worry, I'm only going to have a few special chapters like this, where it's narrated by Zia, Sadie, Carter or Walt. Most of them will be narrated by the triplets. I have a great idea for a chapter narrated by either Carter or Walt, in which the two of them get into a lot of trouble, involving the Cairo police and...Wait, I'm not going to spoil it for you! I'll just say it's going to be really funny! (Freak might be in it. :) ) **


	5. My Dear Readers--AN

**IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE**

**My dear readers,**

**I am terribly sorry I don't update frequently. I am overwhelmed. Homeschooling during the summer, stressed parents, family business troubles, moving, a sick pet, a terribly sick dad who is in danger of becoming disabled, an annoying sister, several book clubs at once, music lessons, plays I'm trying to get a part in, cousins visiting, all my writing projects, etc. But I am continuing this story, so have no fear! However, I think I need to spend a bit more time with another fandom of mine-Les Miserables. I have so many stories going at once, that I think I need to focus on one fandom at a time. So for the next two or three months, you will be seeing very little of this story. But please don't give up on me! I guarantee this silence will not last forever-I simply want to finish some of my other fanfics before continuing this! I promise that this is for the better. You know, there is this line in the musical version of the book 'Les Miserables'-"I am the master of hundreds of workers, they all look to me. Can I abandon them, how would they live, if I am not free?" I feel like singing, "I am the writer for 25 reviewers, they all look to me." That's how sorry I feel! But this story will not turn out good if I'm stressed and rushing it. Once I'm more relaxed and have more time on my hands and have finished some of my other fanfics, then, dear readers, I will continue this story and not stop till the very end! So, could you please hang in there a couple of months? **

**You are the greatest readers a writer could ask for. See you in a few months. **

**Sincerely,**

**AzureOtter **


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